When it comes to marketing your franchise business there are a few key challenges you’re probably facing.

How do you keep your marketing strategy consistent at both a brand and local level? How can you leverage local data at a national level and vice versa?  

Many franchisors see Facebook purely as a channel for keeping in touch with friends and family, as this is how they use it day to day, however, what they often don’t realise is that social can drive real results for businesses.  

The importance of consistent branding in positioning your franchise business is the first step to getting this right.

But what do we do next? How do we turn that branding into tangible business results that benefit both the franchisor and franchisee?

The key here is to find a way to consolidate your national and local marketing activities into one cohesive strategy. Unlike other forms of marketing, Facebook’s broad range of advertising formats offer solutions at all stages of the marketing funnel –  from building brand awareness through to staying front of mind through the consideration phase and finally, driving and tracking conversions – all in one medium.

In comparison, above the line advertising might build great brand awareness, but it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to track those customers through to individual conversion. Similarly, search marketing presents a great opportunity to drive conversion among potential customers who are already at the intent phase of the funnel, however it is much less effective in the brand awareness and consideration phases.

Now that you’re building that brand awareness, wouldn’t it be great if you could pull insights on every person that visits your website? The Facebook pixel is one of the most effective tools to gather valuable information on audience behaviour and demographics, as well as to target your ads to people who are already familiar with your brand, or those like them, at a local level through the consideration and conversion phases.

Customise the message

You’ve likely already been collecting customer data over the years, but did you know that Facebook can amplify the value of that data in the form of custom audiences?

Inputting the email addresses and phone numbers of your franchisees’ customers and contacts into Facebook, allows you to target past customers and warm leads at both a brand and a local level, with specific messaging designed just for them.

For example, past customers could be targeted with an ad that drives customer retention and loyalty, while warm leads could be presented with a special offer to get them over the line from the consideration to conversion phase.

One of Facebook’s key selling point as an advertising platform is that it gives you the ability to target individual people, rather than broad demographics. Facebook has over 1 million data points on every one of its users, providing a unique opportunity to create highly targeted and trackable campaigns, whether that be through using specific interest and interaction targeting, or your own custom audiences.

For example, a cohesive Facebook marketing strategy can utilise ads that drive traffic to your website to build awareness and then retarget those potential customers at a local level through the consideration and conversion phases.

For instance, you might see an ad on Facebook promoting a particular gym franchise. When you click on the ad you’re taken to their national website where you can get more information. The next day, you could be served another ad on Facebook, but knowing you’re already familiar with the brand, this ad introduces you to your local gym.

Now, you not only know that the franchise exists but you know there’s a branch within 5km of where you live. If you still haven’t made an enquiry by this time, we can send you an ad that gives you access to a special offer in exchange for you submitting your details or contacting your local gym directly.

As a franchisor, you can now follow that customer from their first interaction with the brand (visiting the website) through to becoming a customer (registering for the free trial at their local branch), and understand exactly how much it cost to acquire that customer.

Driving results in social media

Now, you’re probably thinking that all sounds well and good, but HOW do we do that?

The social landscape is ever changing and developing strategies of this nature can be complex. To maximise the effectiveness of your campaigns and drive optimal results, you’re best to leverage the experts.

To effectively build out the strategy and take full advantage of all it can offer, a Facebook marketing expert and robust technology platform could be a great investment.

You know your business inside out but you spend so much time on that, it’s likely you don’t have the same level of understanding of social media marketing. Find someone that has experience in managing both national campaigns and smaller localised campaigns to leverage both aspects equally.

Marketing a franchise business comes with a unique set of challenges, however, with the right help and technology, Facebook can be the advertising solution for you, offering you visibility and control across a cohesive and aligned marketing strategy as well as access to robust reporting and analytics across both brand and local campaigns.